We need to improve public transit between downtown and Old Strathcona

Living downtown, I have excellent access to public transit. The Bay/Enterprise Square LRT stop is just down the block, and major bus routes like the 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, and 9 are all just a short walk away. As a result, I try to take transit whenever I can. While most of my activities and appointments are downtown, the other two key areas for me are 124 Street and Old Strathcona. Travelling to 124 Street or nearly anywhere in-between is quick and easy, but the same cannot be said for getting to Old Strathcona.

If I want to meet with someone who is on the southside, Old Strathcona is an ideal location. It’s also a popular spot for evening events, and of course the unique shops and restaurants along Whyte Avenue are a draw. But I always dread travelling to the area from downtown because it’s almost always easier to drive. Given that Old Strathcona is very central and not very far from downtown, I find that hard to swallow.

If I want to go to High Street, I have a number of options. Google Maps tells me that getting from the Sobeys on Jasper Avenue at 104 Street to the Mountain Equipment Co-op at 124 Street and 102 Avenue should take about 5 minutes to drive (it’s about 2.6 km). If I wanted to walk, which I have done in the summer, it takes about 35 minutes. The bus falls in-between those two, at anywhere from 13 minutes to 21 minutes, depending on the route. More importantly though, I have a number of options, and never have to wait very long. Here are two scenarios.

Let’s say I wanted to get there by 2pm on a weekday. There are many options to choose from:

Route 135 departs at 1:35pm and takes 14 minutes

Route 111 departs at 1:40pm and takes 7 minutes, followed by a 5 minute walk

Route 5 departs at 1:42pm and takes 14 minutes

Route 1 departs at 1:43pm and takes 11 minutes

Route 2 departs at 1:47pm and takes 6 minutes, followed by a 5 minute walk

And if I miss those, I’m not waiting around forever. At that time of day, route 135 comes every 15 minutes. So does routes 1 and 2. Route 5 and 111 run every 30 minutes.

Let’s say I wanted to get there by 7pm instead. Again, on a weekday, we have a number of options:

Route 120 departs at 6:38pm and takes 14 minutes

Route 5 departs at 6:42pm and takes 11 minutes

Route 1 departs at 6:43pm and takes 11 minutes

Route 2 departs at 6:50pm and takes 5 minutes, followed by a 5 minute walk

Again, both routes 1 and 5 run very frequently (actually less than 15 minutes according to Google Maps).

Now let’s compare that with travelling to Old Strathcona. According to Google Maps, the trip from Sobeys on Jasper Avenue at 104 Street to Starbucks on Whyte Avenue at Calgary Trail should take about 9 minutes to drive (it’s about 3.9 km). I haven’t actually tried it (at least not directly) but walking should take about 45 minutes.

Now how about taking transit? Here are your options:

Route 52 departs at 1:19pm and takes 20 minutes, followed by a 3 minute walk

Route 7 departs at 1:20pm and takes 21 minutes

LRT to University departs at 1:32pm and takes 7 minutes, followed by a 6 minute ride on route 57, plus 1 minute to transfer

LRT to University departs at 1:42pm and takes 7 minutes, followed by a 6 minute ride on route 4, plus 1 minute to transfer (gets you there 4 minutes late)

Two of those options include a transfer from the LRT to the bus, which is less than ideal. But the real issue is that these routes do not run that frequently. If you miss the 7, you’re waiting half an hour. Same thing with the 52. And those two routes are only 1 minute apart from each other, which means you really are waiting another half hour.

For completeness, let’s look at 7pm again. Here are the options:

LRT to University departs at 6:23pm and takes 7 minutes, followed by a 6 minute ride on route 4, plus 1 minute to transfer

LRT to University departs at 6:33pm and takes 7 minutes, followed by a 5 minute ride on route 7, plus 1 minute to transfer

LRT to University departs at 6:43pm and takes 7 minutes, followed by a 6 minute ride on route 4, plus 1 minute to transfer (gets you there 6 minutes late)

Aside from route 7, which only runs every 30 minutes, you basically have to take the LRT and then transfer.

The numbers only tell part of the story. There’s also the actual experience of taking both trips. Going from downtown to High Street is a breeze – with so many routes running down Jasper Avenue, you don’t have to wait long until a bus comes that you can get on. Going from downtown to Old Strathcona is the opposite, especially if you decide to wait at the main stop across from Hotel MacDonald – you see sometimes half a dozen route 8 buses go by before your bus ever comes. It’s depressing.

I definitely feel that travelling between downtown and Old Strathcona on public transit should be better. Is ridership an issue, is that why we don’t have more options or more frequent service? It does seem like a route that could be popular, and it certainly seems like a route that should be easier to travel.

Tomorrow a report on the LRT Central Area Circulator is going to the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. The Circulator would essentially cover the route I’m talking about – downtown to Old Strathcona. Here’s a look at the map:

The highlighted section would extend from the current Health Sciences Station west to the Bonnie Doon Station on the Southeast LRT line. The alignment for this extension has not been identified yet, but it looks from the map as though it might run slightly south of 82 Avenue. The report highlights the importance of this segment:

Lack of clarity regarding this segment of the LRT network creates public uncertainty. Developing an alignment in full consultation with community stakeholders will improve public understanding around the network, particularly regarding the alignment through the Strathcona and University areas and how the line will cross the river near 109 Street. Designation as a future LRT connection to the Southeast and West LRT line would clarify land use expectations and improve the likelihood of densification and other transit oriented development.

While the recommendation is simply to receive the report, it sounds like funding may finally be coming to allow Administration to move forward:

In order to complete this planning exercise, a one-time budget request is included in the 2013 Operating Budget as an Unfunded Service Package. This budget would be used to retain a consultant to develop an alignment recommendation for the Central Area LRT Circulator.

I think this extension to the LRT would make a lot of sense, but it’s still a long way off. In the meantime, I think either more frequent bus service or additional bus routes between downtown and Old Strathcona would be welcome.

There are two other options worth mentioning. The first is that you could cycle the trip from downtown to Old Strathcona, which Google Maps estimates would take 18 minutes. That’s less than ideal in the winter, but it could be done. Cycling is definitely something I’d like to do more of next year, and it’s exactly this kind of trip that cycling would be perfect for.

The second option is the High Level Streetcar. From the May long weekend until Labour Day, it runs daily every forty minutes (between 11am and 3pm, except during the Fringe when it runs until 10pm). I think the Edmonton Radial Railway Society does a great job running the line, but perhaps we should operationalize it. The track is already there, and while there’s not much in the way of stops along the way, the route is great for getting from downtown to Old Strathcona and back again.

17 thoughts on “We need to improve public transit between downtown and Old Strathcona”

This has bugged me for a decade of living/working/schooling between DT & Whyte. How difficult could it possibly be to get a new ‘city centre’ or ‘bridge route’ bus doing the loop from for e.g. Whyte/109 to Jasper/101 even just as an interim solution?
In general I’m a huge transit proponent and appreciate the more than decent job ETS does for our level or ridership, but please—Great Lord Of Public Transit, hear our prayer!

When I lived in Old Strathcona, I dreaded going to Oilers games because of the poor public transportation to my neighborhood. It was always a pain to get back from Rexall Place. It typically took well over an hour. If I lived downtown, I could have been home in 10 minutes. That last mile was incredibly inefficient.

I absolutely agree, transit to Old Strathcona is poor and during the Scona road closure it was dismal. We have had several children traveling to school from our home through the downtown and to Mill Creek and they are also appalled at the service, especially to the western part of the area. We also like to meet friends on in the area. For us it’s a 20 minute cycle, a 30-40 minute bus ride, or a 45 minute walk. Google always suggests the walk option when we pull up the bus routes.

(I just want to note that Transit is still using an outdated map with the visual implication that the Quarters LRT stop is at 95 and Jasper, when in fact it will be quite a bit west of there, a stone’s throw from the Churchill stop.)

Hmmm…while I agree improvements can always be made, I certainly wouldn’t say that service between Old Strathcona and Downtown is abysmal. I happen to live in OS, and work Downtown. I walk about 5 minutes to my stop on 99th street, where I have the option of taking one of 4 or 5 buses that stop there within a short time frame. On my way home, I have a choice of about 7 or 8 buses. My total commute, including the time it takes to walk to and from the bus stop, is about 20 minutes. I can hardly complain about that.

I totally agree. For years I have travelled downtown and back to Old Strathcona by bus. It is a frustrating experience. I now spend even more time downtown and find that things have not improved. FYI – the 52 stops running downtown just before 6 pm, leaving the #7 as the only bus that goes to the centre of OS in the evening when restaurants, theatres and pubs are the most active.. Weekend service is…weekend service.

The High Level Streetcar is looking at coming up to Whyte Avenue (behind the new washrooms). It would be a boon to have a year round service as part of transit.

Shirley, thank you for letting us know about the possibility of the High Level street car extending to Whyte. When I worked downtown on Jasper & 9th, I relished the days that I could take the street car to Whyte, do a little window shopping and then catch a bus home to the University area. It was a breeze! I even bought a ticket pack from the ERRS (I guess I could have taken a trip around Ft Edmonton too…)

You alluded to the “hidden” travel time in your article – the infrequency and “bunching” up of routes means that people arrive at their destinations far ahead of the time they actually need to arrive – or arrive late. Although I do a lot of work in relative isolation, I prefer to take ETS to and from meetings with clients. No gas, mileage, parking, etc. If I have to arrive 20 minutes early, only to *wait* (how much real work can one really do on a mobile device?).

Also, the dire need for “super-express” bus routes running East-West that incorporate LRT stations and transit centres. WEM via Whitemud/Southgate to Millgate would be a good example.

Thanks Mack! I rarely travel between the two “cities” 😉 but I have noted this tendency with ETS north-south of the river, and in many other areas of the city. The problem I hear from those who contract for the city is that the ETS planners are still thinking old school – using the “pulse system”. This is an old method of transit scheduling that works very well for small communities and towns, but not at all for a city of our size. ETS planners are hardly forward thinking, and the regime needs a real update with modern training and/or fresh blood.

I have noticed the same resistance to change with realignment of routes to better serve changing populations in the city. Unfortunately, “customer service” is not always the name of the game.

Add the recent change of plans for the Millwoods LRT extension, huge suburban “planned future service” areas, and we suddenly see we are facing a dire looking transit system in the near future.

Great post. I often take a bus from the Telus towers across the river and hop off on 99th street at 89 Ave (the 2nd (sometimes first) stop across the river). While waiting at the Telus towers I can stand and watch between 2 to 4 #8 busses go past while we wait, (and wait some more) for a bus to simply take us just the other side. I have actually taken to walking, which, is just fine if the weather is ok. – thanks for posting this, I’ve meant to bring this up this for years. 🙂

Hear, hear. I live near Old Strathcona, but as I get to know the city better I’m spending more evenings downtown and north of the river. I use the Google maps application on my iphone to learn the best ways to get home, but it only shows the ideal or scheduled versions, and doesn’t show how far apart the buses or trains are at a certain time of night, so I’m optimising by trial and error. And I have to guess – do I walk down to the Telus shelter, do I get into the LRT, or do I wait on the street (near City Centre, for example) for a bus that is scheduled to come first or get there faster but might not be frequent or on time.